Do people still watch these kinds of shows? Seems like they've run their course.. Opening monologue which usually is about as funny as titanic memorabilia, followed by 2 or 3 people who are mostly unknown, also toss in some banter between a band we have no connection to and the host. Occasional music act we may or may not have heard of.. Meh.

xynix:Do people still watch these kinds of shows? Seems like they've run their course.. Opening monologue which usually is about as funny as titanic memorabilia, followed by 2 or 3 people who are mostly unknown, also toss in some banter between a band we have no connection to and the host. Occasional music act we may or may not have heard of.. Meh.

To put this in perspective: When ABC announced that Kimmel was going on at 10:30 central, part of the reason it was a big deal was because Nightline was finally getting bigger ratings than Leno or Letterman.

NIGHTLINE? Who the fark watches Nightline? These 10:30 show are getting like 0.3-0.7 ratings; the Family Guy reruns your local Fox affiliate throws up probably get better than that. I don't understand why the networks are still acting like these shows matter.

How are Leno's ratings? It wasn't a mistake to fire Conan, from NBC's perspective, if Leno still has better ratings than Conan.

That's an unfair comparison because a broadcast network with a local news affiliate still has far greater reach than a cable channel, at least as measured by traditional TV ratings. Conan's show starts earlier and his direct competition is Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien was given only months to work and Leno's prime time show pretty much guaranteed NBC would not and could not give it more time. Leno was allowed to lose to Letterman for years before the audience finally stabilized with Leno having the larger one. The long-term potential of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien, for example in a post-Letterman retirement scenario, will never be known.

DubyaHater:Conan sucks. Listening to that red-haired Marfan deliver a punchline is akin to dragging your testicles through broken glass.

Do you, by chance, happen to have a double out there somewhere who does not have a goatee? Clearly you are a refugee from some kind of mirror universe were Conan isn't a comedian but instead is a vile, Pol Pot like dictator.

In your world, your words would have condemned you to death by 1992 Ford Taurus.

xynix:Do people still watch these kinds of shows? Seems like they've run their course.. Opening monologue which usually is about as funny as titanic memorabilia, followed by 2 or 3 people who are mostly unknown, also toss in some banter between a band we have no connection to and the host. Occasional music act we may or may not have heard of.. Meh.

Generally I'm not a fan of late night TV outside of TDS and Colbert, but I do love Craig Ferguson's show. He's got some great monologues some times, some fun recurring gags, and he's great at the interviews. He actually somehow managed to get Alex Kingston talking about vibrators once, and he wasn't even trying to go that way. He was just showing her his rabbit.

Do you, by chance, happen to have a double out there somewhere who does not have a goatee? Clearly you are a refugee from some kind of mirror universe were Conan isn't a comedian but instead is a vile, Pol Pot like dictator.

In your world, your words would have condemned you to death by 1992 Ford Taurus.

Mad_Radhu:xynix: Do people still watch these kinds of shows? Seems like they've run their course.. Opening monologue which usually is about as funny as titanic memorabilia, followed by 2 or 3 people who are mostly unknown, also toss in some banter between a band we have no connection to and the host. Occasional music act we may or may not have heard of.. Meh.

Generally I'm not a fan of late night TV outside of TDS and Colbert, but I do love Craig Ferguson's show. He's got some great monologues some times, some fun recurring gags, and he's great at the interviews. He actually somehow managed to get Alex Kingston talking about vibrators once, and he wasn't even trying to go that way. He was just showing her his rabbit.

xynix:Do people still watch these kinds of shows? Seems like they've run their course.. Opening monologue which usually is about as funny as titanic memorabilia, followed by 2 or 3 people who are mostly unknown, also toss in some banter between a band we have no connection to and the host. Occasional music act we may or may not have heard of.. Meh.

I don't think the format dying at all. Cut the show down to half an hour, remove the band and add jokes that actually work and you end up with The Daily Show. So there's definitely still a market for shows that are monologue->skit->talk show guest

Mad_Radhu:xynix: Do people still watch these kinds of shows? Seems like they've run their course.. Opening monologue which usually is about as funny as titanic memorabilia, followed by 2 or 3 people who are mostly unknown, also toss in some banter between a band we have no connection to and the host. Occasional music act we may or may not have heard of.. Meh.

Generally I'm not a fan of late night TV outside of TDS and Colbert, but I do love Craig Ferguson's show. He's got some great monologues some times, some fun recurring gags, and he's great at the interviews. He actually somehow managed to get Alex Kingston talking about vibrators once, and he wasn't even trying to go that way. He was just showing her his rabbit.

Conan never fit the early timeslot. Craig's in the perfect timeslot right now and I pray to Jesus that it never changes, because he doesn't fit in with the earlier crowd, either.

Realistically, the man that got screwed the most out of this was George Lopez. He put his ass on the line and moved his show for Conan and then got cancelled. I'm not a fan of Lopez, but his show was entertaining. All of Conan's people got huge payouts and didn't have to move when they switched networks, and, obviously, Leno and his people are back where they were. Lopez's people were all out of a job.

xynix:Do people still watch these kinds of shows? Seems like they've run their course.. Opening monologue which usually is about as funny as titanic memorabilia, followed by 2 or 3 people who are mostly unknown, also toss in some banter between a band we have no connection to and the host. Occasional music act we may or may not have heard of.. Meh.

Yes, people who still watch late local news do. There's a reason ABC is moving Kimmel up to 2330. If they can hold half the late local news audience, they've done their job.

As for Leno, even if we've watched the late news on the local NBC affiliate, the channel is getting changed after it's over.

NeoCortex42:I don't think the format dying at all. Cut the show down to half an hour, remove the band and add jokes that actually work and you end up with The Daily Show. So there's definitely still a market for shows that are monologue->skit->talk show guest

Under Craig, maybe, and more in the Colbert Report vain, definitely. TDS is too politically charged nowadays, and takes itself too seriously(which is where Colbert wins, by being completely absurd). I watch late night TV for brainless laughs, not to be bashed over the head from

Vash's Apprentice:Mad_Radhu: xynix: Do people still watch these kinds of shows? Seems like they've run their course.. Opening monologue which usually is about as funny as titanic memorabilia, followed by 2 or 3 people who are mostly unknown, also toss in some banter between a band we have no connection to and the host. Occasional music act we may or may not have heard of.. Meh.

Generally I'm not a fan of late night TV outside of TDS and Colbert, but I do love Craig Ferguson's show. He's got some great monologues some times, some fun recurring gags, and he's great at the interviews. He actually somehow managed to get Alex Kingston talking about vibrators once, and he wasn't even trying to go that way. He was just showing her his rabbit.

Conan's last two weeks on NBC gave him a reputation for being edgy, but TBS obviously told him to tone it down. He's not that great, probably because he's not allowed to be. None of the late night hosts are that great. Craig Ferguson is best because he seems to not really care, that and the fact his producers have surrendered themselves to his being a cult figure rather than a mainstream one.

NeoCortex42:I don't think the format dying at all. Cut the show down to half an hour, remove the band and add jokes that actually work and you end up with The Daily Show. So there's definitely still a market for shows that are monologue->skit->talk show guest

The Daily Show pisses off too many people to be a late night show on a broadcast network.

Leno sucks so bad that the only way to get this greenlit was to mention Conan in the headline. Conan sucks so bad he is relegated to Turner, along with the rest of the emasculated cartoons. The whole argument is like fighting over who had the smelliest fart.

It is now the 21st century. Leno, Letterman, Conan, Ferguson (best of the group, IMO), are working in a format that is all but dead thanks to the internet. Fark's politics tab is one of the black hell-holes of the internet, but even on its worst day, it is more entertaining than any of those guys on their best day.

Jesus tits. Leno sucks, but he still dominates his time slot. Conan, on the other hand, is in third place on basic cable behind Stewart and Colbert.

Conan's TBS show has been a huge disappointment. Flashes of brilliance, but it's almost always just the same old tired late night format with boring guests and bland monologues with variations of the same jokes on Letterman and Leno.

How are Leno's ratings? It wasn't a mistake to fire Conan, from NBC's perspective, if Leno still has better ratings than Conan.

As was pointed out earlier, comparing Leno's and Conan's ratings now is meaningless, but Leno is still the highest rated late night show. On Wednesday night, Leno scored around 3 million viewers with a 1.2/7 rating in the demo, making it the fourth-highest rated show of the evening behind the NFL, Big Brother, and So You Think You can Dance (though just barely). For the 2011-2012 Broadcast season, he averaged 3.7 million viewers and just under a 1.0 rating: Cancelable on pretty much every network if it aired in primetime, but better than any other late night talk show (though Nightline is close right now).

Balchinian:Leno sucks so bad that the only way to get this greenlit was to mention Conan in the headline. Conan sucks so bad he is relegated to Turner, along with the rest of the emasculated cartoons. The whole argument is like fighting over who had the smelliest fart.

It is now the 21st century. Leno, Letterman, Conan, Ferguson (best of the group, IMO), are working in a format that is all but dead thanks to the internet. Fark's politics tab is one of the black hell-holes of the internet, but even on its worst day, it is more entertaining than any of those guys on their best day.

Conan is gone, but sadly not forgotten since some asshole (or TBS intern) keeps submitting Conan videos to the Video Tab. The only reason Conan was ever amusing was because it was in the context of the little guy giving NBC the finger. Now he's just a yappy dog on a cable network.

I often wonder, if Conan new in advance how things would end up, do people think he would have walked away, or would he have kept the Tonight Show and just let NBC push it back to 12:05 so that Leno could have had a pre-tonight show monologue.

I think Kimmel actually has some of the funniest and most unique bits, I LOVED when he dressed up like Leno and made fun of Leno. Used the same material Leno used, same voice, same interaction with the band... Hilarious!

Leno is blacklisted, the tonight show war of the 90s is something we got to relive a few years ago. I think nobody can disagree that Carson was the best late night host ever, after that... hard to say

You know what makes me happy about the whole Leno thing? After Carson retired, the only late night show he agreed to make cameo appearances on and write jokes for was Letterman's. That still has to sting.

I used to watch Letterman when I was in college. In the 80s. The early 80s.

My typical ritual was to goof off until 11:30, then watch Carson's monologue, then go downstairs to the cafe -- they close at midnight, and at 11:55 they gave away all their remaining coffee for free. I'd tank up the biggest mug I had, and then take it back to my dorm and watch Letterman. After that, I'd get to work on my homework that was due the next day.

browntimmy:You know what makes me happy about the whole Leno thing? After Carson retired, the only late night show he agreed to make cameo appearances on and write jokes for was Letterman's. That still has to sting.

Actually it is kind of interesting one of his other post-retirement appearances was on the Krusty Gets Kancelled epiosde of The Simpsons from Season 4. Of course back in Season 4 Conan O'Brien was on the writing staff of The Simpsons.